


Malos Tratos a Niños

by oblitherous



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Child Abuse, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Lance whump, Langst, Past Child Abuse, Pidge Uses They/Them Pronouns, hurt!lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-15
Updated: 2016-10-15
Packaged: 2018-08-22 15:32:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8291006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oblitherous/pseuds/oblitherous
Summary: Prompt: "He never saw so much blood before"Allura requires the paladins to bond better and thinks experiencing each others past might help with the process. Unbeknownst to them, Lance was abused as a child.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't beta'd yet, I'll put up the edited version later.

Bonding. That’s what Allura called it. A team bonding exercise where they experience each other's memories in hopes to better understand each other.

Allura set up helmets that connected to a strange white box which can produce sedatives in case of rowdy users. Then the quintessence takes care of the rest. Pidge tried to drill it out of Allura what occupied the insides of the box, but Allura replied with some alien jargon that launched Pidge into an investigation of the machine.

The machine itself looked rather bland, but each of the bicycle-esque helmets colored to match it’s paladin user.

“The machine will pump sedatives into the person wearing the helmet in case the user won’t allow the others to sync with you and see your memories,” Allura explained. “If you fight against it, you will feel pain and the machine could potentially damage your central nerve system. So please just relax.”

“Great...” Keith muttered.

They went through memory after memory. Using a day per a person as to not exhaust their brains and fry their central nervous system.

First, they went through Pidge, which was pretty quick mostly due to their age, then Keith, Shiro, and Hunk. After Hunk’s memories, which felt like a rest period for the paladins because of all the angst from Shiro and Keith, they all sat around lazily in the simulator’s chairs.

“Yeah me and Lance have been best friends since we were three,” Hunk laughed. His memories laced with warm thoughts and happy feelings-which contained a lot of little kid Lance.

Lance took off his helmet. “Wasn’t I the cutest kid you’ve ever seen?” Lance said proudly. He flashed a dazzling smile. Pidge rolled their eyes.

“Maybe if you laid off the fights we could’ve seen your face better,” Keith propped his elbows on his knees.

“Yeah Lance, were you always covered in bruises?” Pidge laughed and looked between Hunk and Lance. Hunk shrugged.

“Nah, Lance has lots of younger brothers and sisters to rough house with, so he always had some kinda bruise on him,” Hunk said.

Lance caught Shiro’s eyes. He stared intensely at Lance.

“Hey Shiro, what’s up?” Lance asked.

Shiro didn’t look away. “I’ve seen rough housing, but nothing to that degree.”

Lance laughed a little too loud. Hunk looked at him funny.

“Nah, I just have _really_ aggressive sisters.”

The rest of the paladins wouldn’t let him live that one down for the rest of the night.

When Lance escaped to his room, he sighed. Cold sweat dripped down the back of his neck. Was he really that scared?

Lance couldn’t let them see his past. Hell, he couldn’t remember some of it due to head trauma. Maybe they wouldn’t be able to see it?

Could he run? Ask Allura if he could skip the session? But she would start asking questions too.

Well this was going to happen no matter what, right? Eventually, the truth would have to come out. He can’t just hide this stuff forever and pretend that everything’s okay. The only person he could really saw himself talking to was Hunk given their extensive history together, but like hell did he want to lay his garbage on someone else.

Lance didn’t have a good clean childhood. He shivered and stripped. His clothes started to feel sweaty and gross.

Old scars and burn marks covered his skin. He could rival Shiro in the amount of scars that he has. Most of them covered his back, stomach, and thighs. He rarely changed with someone else in the room-in fact the only time he did was with his sisters.

He shivered again. A loud bang resonated through his room door and he jumped. He quickly threw his clothes back on.

“Come in?” His voice almost cracked.

Keith came in with a plate of food goo. “Hunk said you didn’t eat…” His eyes locked onto Lance’s body.

“What’s up? See something you like?” Lance wiggled his eyebrows and Keith rolled his eyes.

“Nah I just...okay, so food goo wasn’t the reason I came here,” Keith shut the door behind himself. He placed the food goo by the door. Lance’s blood ran cold. “Shiro and I agreed something’s wrong with how Hunk saw you.”

“My sisters are really strong, okay? Don’t need to kick a man while he’s down, jeez,” Lance crossed his arms.

“I know what it’s like to pretend you’re okay when you’re injured,” Keith stepped closer to him. Lance flinched. Very noticeably. “Kids can’t hurt each other that much.”

Keith stepped closer, his hands came up to Lance’s jacket, which he noticed was inside out. “Please?” He asked.

Lance stared at Keith. “I think you got one too many hits by the training bot, I’m fine.”

Keith huffed. “Just show me your arms, cargo pilot.”

“Not by the hairs of my chinny chin chin, dropout,” Lance placed his hands on his hips.  

Keith clenched his fists and sighed. “What are you trying to hide?”

“My awesome biceps,” Lance smirked.

Keith pinched the bridge of his nose. “Whatever. Shiro says he wants us all rested up for tomorrow's training session.”

Lance shivered. “Right.”

Keith left.

Lance sat on his bed, determined to make defenses in his brain rock solid. He involuntarily rubbed his arm. He can’t let them see.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First memory of Lance's  
> Also Unbeta'd  
> Will work on it more soon (Maybe?)

The simulator drifted through his subconscious. It worked past a few walls easily. Lance tried to fight against it, but Allura dialed up the machine’s power and it plowed straight through his line of defense.

“Stop fighting it Lance,” Shiro warned. Lance gritted his teeth.

“Dude, isn’t it painful?” Hunk’s voice felt warm and almost relaxed his mind. Sedatives flooded Lance and he automatically let go. “There we go.”

The memory slipped past Lance.

A more recent memory, a little before he entered the garrison.

Lance laid on the roof of the home his family lived in. Rain hit his numbing head. There was so much blood. More than most of the paladins have seen. Lance could feel panic pick up from the other paladins. Pidge especially.

Memory Lance grabbed his stomach. He’s bleeding out. It’s a shallow wound. Lance rolled onto his side. He got up slowly, carefully limping to the door. It opened quickly and he saw one of his sister’s grab him. She takes him into a stairwell. It smelled musty, and the molded staircase squished under their feet. She began sewing him up.

“You’re going to the garrison tomorrow in this condition?” she half glared at him.

“Yeah,” he flinched as she made another stitch.

“Lance stay awake,” her voice sounded distant. “You shouldn’t have taken the blame, Veronica can handle herself and they wouldn’t have gone so harsh on her.”

“Gotta protect my hermanita, ya know?”

She laughed. “Right. We’re a family, even if we got fucked up parents.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter!  
> Still not beta'd  
> Will get to that soon!

Lance closed his eyes and the simulator broke through another memory.

He couldn’t feel his teammates anymore. The other paladins falling in sync with him finally.

The next scene Lance was thirteen years old. His parents shouted from the kitchen. He corralled all his younger siblings with him into their room. His two older sisters were out at their part time jobs, so he took responsibility for the younger siblings. He shivered when he heard a bottle breaking and his mother screaming for help. He knew better, though. He stayed still.

Lance’s little sister ran out, and towards the screaming. His blood ran cold. He stayed still, hoping that she would turn around and run back.

When she didn’t he turned to his siblings. “Jac, watch over them ‘kay? And text the girls that they need to get home like now.”

He ran after his baby sister. Down the stairs and he managed to scoop her up before she got into the living room. He quickly brought her back into the room where the others were.

“Lance?” His mother screamed. Dread filled him and he shut the door.

“Yes, mama?” He turned around.

Her eyes bugged out and blood trickled from her temple. She frowned. “Come down here now.”

Then the memory skipped ahead a few minutes. Like a record skipping over the track. One of his parents kicks into his stomach. Glass broke over his head. He curled into himself. His stomach twisted, and he would’ve thrown up if his stomach had something in it. He opened his eyes and he could see the cabinet. The white had a splash of someone’s blood on it.

Someone hauled him to his feet and pressed either a knife or a broken bottle against his neck. He felt sweat drip down his back. Saliva and blood dripped down from his lips.

He heard screaming.

A man pried him away from his parents, his older sisters taking him away from the drunks.

“-ance?”

He looked up at his sister’s face. Her voice sounded like it was underwater.

“Lance stay with me, someone call 911!”

“God Lance, stay with us please,” they were begging.

“Lance please, Dios mio, please stay awake!”

He squeezed whoever's hand was in his.

Memories like cinematic records flashed by. All the paladins stood on the same white ground, watching the records fly by. Lance lying to the police and doctors about what happened.

Lance's lies echoed through the room.

“Some crazy guy tried to mug me!”

“I tried to fight someone at school.”

“I was just playing with my brothers and sisters!”

The records stopped and they focused on little kid Lance. He stared at himself in the mirror, one front tooth missing.

“I’m okay,” Lance said. He brushed some of his hair to the side, exposing a deep cleaned gash. “I’m okay.”

The child blinked and suddenly now Lance appeared. The scenery changed too, they were in the castle-ship. Lance stood in front of a mirror. His upper torso exposed. He stared at himself intensely.

“I’m okay,” he repeated. “I’m okay.”

“Lance,” he heard Keith’s voice echo through the memory. “It’s okay to not be okay.”

“I’m okay,” the memory repeated. “I’m okay.”

“I’m not okay,” Lance said.

The paladins fell out of Lance’s head and Lance shoved off the helmet. He left before the rest of them could collect themselves and chase after him.

“I didn’t even…” Hunk looked at his hands.

Pidge wiped their eyes with their forearm.

Keith wrung his wrists. “I can go talk to him.”

Shiro looked at the younger paladins and nodded. “You know how he feels the most. He needs someone right now.”

Keith staggered up, his body screaming at him from all the abuse that Lance’s memories caused.

He found Lance in the kitchen, playing with the food goo.

“Hey,” Keith leaned up against the doorway.

“Hey,” Lance didn’t look up from his food.

“Wanna talk about what happened?” Keith walked over and sat across from Lance.

“It’ll happen eventually anyways.”

Keith smirked and then frowned. He leaned on the table and placed his hands on top of the table. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“I can’t have my younger siblings go into foster care. Besides, they only liked to hurt me,” Lance shrugged.

“Why did they only hurt you?”

Lance shook his head. “I don’t know. Because I always threw myself into the line of fire?”

Lance glanced at Keith and Keith ashen.

“You could’ve asked for help,” Keith laced his fingers in Lance’s. “I know how it feels like to go through what you went through.”

“Your parents still loved you, though. They were just shitty at showing it.”

Keith laughed half-heartedly. “Yeah, don’t I know it.”

They sat in silence for a while. Keith’s thumbs rubbed circles against Lance’s hands.

“We care about you, Lance,” Keith said, eyes focused on their hands.

“When I was little I always wanted someone to find me and save me. I wanted my sisters to tell, or someone to see the cuts and bruises,” Lance sniffed and drew his hands closer to himself, letting go of Keith. “When I got older I wanted to protect my younger siblings. Not all of them knew what was going on. The regular beatings stopped.”

Keith opened his mouth but closed it.

Lance started to sob. “I tried to make it stop. Make the hurting stop. I tried to live, but I still can’t.”

Lance didn’t notice the other members of the ship come in.

Hunk and Pidge hugged him and Shiro gripped his shoulder tightly. Even Keith came from the other side of the table to hold him.

“I’m sorry,” Lance choked out.

“It’s okay to not be okay,” Keith said, his words slightly muffled due to his face being pressed into Lance’s shoulder.

“Te quiero,” Lance wrapped his arms around Keith. 

"We're family, dude," Hunk bumped his shoulder. 

"We're here for you, Lance," Shiro mused. 

"Thank you guys," Lance smiled. 

 

 

 


End file.
